When buying on a budget, you need to decide which features to reduce to keep prices in line. Logitech’s G435 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset is like a solid, cheap sports car: it’s reasonably fast, with a low-latency connection. It’s also lightweight and energy efficient, and it looks pretty good for a cheap headset. These $79.99 cans don’t have many options, but they’re stylish, amazingly comfortable, they work wirelessly with a wide variety of devices, and they sound about as good as you’d expect at that price. Read on to see if they’re worthy of a spot on our best gaming headsets list.
Specifications G435 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset
| Driver type: | 40mm |
| Impedance | 45 Ohm |
| Frequency Response | 20 – 20,000 Hz |
| Microphone Type: | Dual beamforming on the cup; 100Hz – 8,000Hz Frequency Response |
| Connectivity Options | Lightspeed wireless (2.4GHz USB Type-A dongle), Bluetooth |
| Cables | USB Type-C to Type-A charging cable (6 feet / 1.8 m) |
| Weight | 0.36 lb / 165 g |
| Relief | New |
| Software | New |
Design and comfort
The G435 is shockingly lightweight. We’re usually impressed when a gaming headset weighs just 0.6 pounds; this one weighs just 0.36 pounds. Given the weight and low price, it’s not surprising that the construction is lightweight plastic, with no metal in sight. Logitech says it’s certified carbon neutral and contains at least 22% recycled plastic, so rest assured your purchase isn’t making the world a worse place.
My test unit was an understated matte black with neon yellow accents on the wiring and buttons. But if you’re looking for a brighter look, off-white/lilac and blue/raspberry combinations are also available. You’ll have to rely on color for flash: there’s no RGB here. The overall design is attractive, with curves and angles on the earcups that look much more stylish than previous Logitech options like the G733I
The ear cups have a little left-right and up-and-down give so they rest comfortably around your ears. Logitech says the G435 is optimized for smaller head sizes, but I have a fairly large head (I use the last two notches on an adjustable cap) and I found the G435 fit my head well with the headband fully extended. With its feather-light weight and soft, fabric-covered memory foam ear cups that are well padded and never feel warm, these are among the most comfortable cans I’ve worn. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them all day, which was surprising given that the headband has no padding and only has a thin layer of fabric over the plastic. But the G435 is so light, that didn’t make it uncomfortable at all.
Controls are simple, with the left earcup having a power button, a volume rocker, and a button that toggles between Lightspeed and Bluetooth or mutes the microphone depending on how long you press it. A beep lets you know when you’ve reached maximum volume; other tones confirm switching on and off. At the bottom of the cup is the USB-C port, which can only be charged and cannot be used to facilitate a wired connection. There’s also no analog input for a 3.5mm cable – audio is Lightspeed and Bluetooth only, with no wired fallback to use when the battery runs out or a device is incompatible.
There is also no microphone boom. The dual beamforming microphones are built into the front of the left earcup.
The USB-A dongle is color-matched to the headset and sticks out about an inch and a half from the port. The width is small enough to avoid blocking adjacent ports.
battery life
Logitech rates the G935 at 18 hours of battery life, and my experience with the G935 confirms that. If you use the headphones for a few days for gaming via the Lightspeed dongle on a PC and PS5, and for music and phone calls on an iPhone 12 Pro Max via Bluetooth, the headset lasted just over 18.5 hours before being switched off. turned off.
Audio Performance
Logitech’s 40mm drivers pump out a respectable volume level, but the clarity is pedestrian and the overall sound quality is just okay. That’s not to say the audio is bad, it’s just not exceptional. You’ll hear key game audio elements fine, and music sounds tonally good, but the bass from explosions and gunfire is disappointing, and you won’t hear any new details in your favorite tunes. Play death loop and Microsoft flight simulator, dialogue, sound effects and ambient noise were all clear. Listening to Baby Keem’s The melodious blue album the music and vocals sounded good, but bass was lacking. A FLAC rip of my Pink Floyd dark side of the moon CD sounded good, but I couldn’t make out the small details in the background that my audiophile-oriented Sennheiser Momentum 3 headset revealed.
Because the G435 does not have bundled software, any audio adjustments, such as equalizer or bass boost, must come from your system’s software or audio playback tools.
The airy, fabric-covered ear cups are comfortable and prevent your ears from getting hot, but they are poorly soundproofed. Unless you turn on the audio, you’ll hear ambient sounds, and when you turn it on, others nearby can hear what you’re listening to. With my son wearing the headset and sitting six feet away, I could hear Kanye’s text clearly Hurricane while he listened.
While the audio was just okay, the lack of any discernible latency was impressive, as was the solid connection to both the Logitech Lightspeed dongle and Bluetooth. Game audio and lip sync in videos showed no lags, which is expected with a dedicated wireless audio dongle, but often more challenging with Bluetooth. Watching Ted Lasso through my tv’s bluetooth connection the audio was fully synced up and the connection remained solid as i walked about 20 feet into the kitchen.
The headset doesn’t include any built-in 3D features or software, but Logitech touts compatibility with PlayStation 5’s Dolby Atmos, Windows Sonic and Tempest 3D AudioTech. While that’s true, the PC surround technologies work on any headset, so it’s a bit like advertising. that a car supports highways. When testing Atmos and Tempest 3D, the audio feels more enveloping than pure stereo, but while playing war zone I didn’t get the kind of enhanced positional intelligence about enemy movement and fire that I found with headsets with specific gaming-oriented 3D enhancements like the Creative SXFI Air Gamer and the Fnatic React+† The 3D effect is fun, but not necessarily informative.
Microphone
The Logitech G435’s microphone clearly picked up my voice in both online gaming and Bluetooth phone calls. Voice clarity was not as good as with boom mics on the Creative SXFI Air Gamer or the Razer Barracuda Xbut no one had any problems understanding me.
Logitech says dual beamforming microphones reduce background noise, and the keyword there is “reduce” rather than eliminate. My voice was indeed louder than the background noises, but the sounds from outside were still there. Game audio, people talking in the next room, and the tapping of my typing were all very noticeable in both gaming sessions and voice recordings.
This was also carried over to Bluetooth communication. With the volume turned up during a call, the microphone picked up the caller’s voice in front of the pinna due to poor sound isolation, and the caller reported hearing an echo. I had to turn the volume down to the lowest level where I could still hear the caller clearly before they reported the echo was gone.
If you’re going to be using the G435 in a very quiet environment, it might not matter, but the microphone makes it a poor option if there’s background noise.
Bottom Line
The Logitech G435 looks good and is really comfortable, and the dual wireless capability makes it easy to use the same cans with your computer and phone (though not at the same time). Corsair’s Virtuoso RGB Wireless XT† The sound won’t blow anyone away, but it’s as good as you’d expect from an $80 set of cans.
The downside is that the mediocre sound isolation means these aren’t a good option for listening in a noisy environment or isolating others from your audio in a quiet environment. And while the mic captures your voice clearly, it also picks up much more background noise than comparable headsets with boom mics.
For $20 more you have the Razer Barracuda Xwhich offers similar flexibility across devices and a better microphone, but lacks Bluetooth connectivity. Creative’s SXFI Air Gamer offers both low-latency gaming on devices like Bluetooth, but costs almost twice as much as the G435 and uses a cable to connect to PCs and PlayStations.
Logitech’s G435 has a unique blend of lightweight, low cost, and wireless flexibility to work across devices. If these are the most important features for you, the G435 is worth considering. But there are better options if you are willing to spend a little more.